The Wasatch Mountain Range not only provides beauty for the residents of Salt Lake City, but recreational opportunities and the water that sustains the valley. In the book “Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge,” Howie Garber has gathered 25 years of his photographs in a beautiful, inspiring format.

Garber is an emergency physician living in Salt Lake City who fell in love with the Wasatch Mountains and put his photography skills to work chronicling their beauty.

“Even if you have been to the same locations, my photographs will hopefully transport you to a place that is unfamiliar,” he writes.

The pictures do just that, finding the beauty in the familiar through lighting and capturing the perfect moment. He sometimes waited hours for just the right cloud cover or light, and it shows in the brilliance of the images.

The oversize scope of the book adds to the enjoyment by having big photos that draw the reader in and transport him to a scene of Wasatch beauty. With the turn of each page a new image awaits to delight the eye and lift the spirit. The fall colors, spring flowers and rushing water are just some of the highlights.

The photos are worth the price of the book, but Garber has also collected essays from local residents. Some of the contributors are Mayor Ralph Becker; Gale Dick, the founder of Save Our Canyons; Peter Metcalf, the CEO of Black Diamond Equipment; conservationist Brooke Williams, and Bill Parry, a professor emeritus in Wasatch geology at the University of Utah.

The short essays are informative, detailing the history and geology of the Wasatch Range. They all show the writers’ love for the splendor of the mountains and the benefits they provide to the Wasatch Front. At the same time, the essays plead to preserve the wild spaces and water quality for future generations.

While all of the photographs are striking, the black-and-white gallery at the end is particularly well done. Those photos seem to capture a sense of peace and solitude that can only be experienced in an alpine setting.

“Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge” is a book that can be read again and again with new discoveries and new insights waiting between the pages.

After attending BYU and the University of Utah for five years and not being able to settle on just one major, Connie Lewis decided to be a writer so she could keep studying all things wonderful and new.